Series pits Cards owner vs. old team

Neil Vigdor, Greenwich Time

Neil Vigdor, Staff Writer

Updated 6:36 am, Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Craig Roberts Stapleton poses next to a framed photograph of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington while holding the front sports page of Sunday's STLToday newspaper featuring the Cardinals in his office at 315 East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Stapleton co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush and in July 2009, he became a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.

U.S. President George W. Bush, center and then U.S. Ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton in 2009. Stapleton formerly co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush but July 2009, he became a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals. The World Series, featuring the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Texas Rangers starts Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 in St. Louis.
Photo: Contributed Photo

U.S. President George W. Bush, center and then U.S. Ambassador to...

Craig Stapleton in his office at Stapleton Management in Greenwich, Conn. in 2007. Stapleton formerly co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush but July 2009, he became a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The World Series, featuring the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Texas Rangers starts Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 in St. Louis.
Photo: File Photo

Craig Stapleton in his office at Stapleton Management in Greenwich,...

Heck, his son Walker was a bat boy during Ryan's sixth and penultimate career no-hitter, a 5-0 Texas Rangers victory over the Oakland A's on June 11, 1990.

"Walker beat the outfielders to the mound," said Stapleton, 66, a Greenwich diplomat and real estate management executive who served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and France.

Such are the perks of being an owner of a Major League Baseball franchise, as Stapleton once was with the Rangers. He and George W. Bush, whom Stapleton is related to through marriage, co-owned the Rangers from 1989 to 1998.

But when the World Series starts at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis Wednesday night, Stapleton will be wearing Cardinals red and sitting not in the Rangers owner's box, but the other one. And he will be opposite Ryan, president and chief executive of the Rangers.

Stapleton is now part of the Cardinals ownership, which consists of eight to 12 partners led by fellow businessman and friend Bill DeWitt Jr., who led a group of investors that bought the team for $150 million in 1996.

"We're reliving our youth from the Texas Rangers now with the St. Louis Cardinals," Stapleton told Greenwich Time Monday morning. "This is unbelievable to be involved in two teams playing in the World Series, especially mid-market teams."

Stapleton was on his way to the airport in Milwaukee, where he and his son Walker, now the state treasurer of Colorado, watched the Cardinals clinch the National League pennant over the Brewers Sunday night in a 12-6 slugfest.

Father and son celebrated the milestone in the visitor's clubhouse, soaking up the exuberance of a team that came within a few outs of missing the playoffs altogether. He couldn't say the same for the champagne.

"We avoided getting doused," the elder Stapleton said. "We never had a celebration like that in Texas, so it was a first for us."

The Cardinals overcame a 10.5-game deficit in the Wild Card standings, winning 23 out of their final 31 games to edge the Atlanta Braves on the final day of the regular season.

"They were dead. Nobody believed that they had a chance," Stapleton said. "We've been the underdogs all year, so there was no way we were going to beat the mighty Phillies."

But they did, behind a three-hit shutout performance by Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter in the decisive fifth game of the series in Philly Oct. 7.

On business in the Czech capital of Prague, Stapleton was relegated to a mere television viewer, watching the game via satellite with a group of friends. First pitch was at 2:30 in the morning, local time.

"Watching the decisive game of a playoff is like awaiting the results of a presidential election," Stapleton said.

Stapleton joined the Cardinals ownership group in the spring of 2009 after leaving his post as ambassador to France. He had gotten to know DeWitt while a partner with the Rangers.

"I said, `When I come back, I want to be a partner in the Cardinals,'" Stapleton said. "He said, `Well, I'll figure it out.'"

Stapleton's Missouri ties run deep. He was born in Kansas City. His in-laws came from St. Louis.

"We feel very much at home with the Cardinals," said Stapleton, who is married to Debbie Walker Stapleton, a second cousin of former President George W. Bush.

You won't find Stapleton carousing with muckety-mucks in some air-conditioned luxury suite at the ballpark, however.

"We're field-level people," said Stapleton, who watched the Cards clinch the pennant from seats near the dugout at Miller Park.

Despite being staked to a four-run lead after the top of the first inning and leading 9-4 after three frames, Stapleton acknowledged a bit of angst.

"Our team is never comfortable," Stapleton said.

At the same time, the best answer to playoff pressure is modest expectations.

When the Rangers played in the World Series last year, Stapleton went to the games in Texas, where the Rangers christened the Ballpark in Arlington when he was an owner with Bush. The Rangers ultimately lost to the San Francisco Giants.

"I was for the Rangers," said Stapleton, who will be at the games in both St. Louis and Texas for the Fall Classic.

But now that he is just four wins away from an elusive World Series ring of his own, Stapleton is putting his kinship aside.

"It will be a little weird," Stapleton said. "Obviously, President Bush is going to be there. He's got some St. Louis roots of his own, so he'll be happy to see St. Louis play well."

Just not too well.

Staff writer Neil Vigdor can be reached atneil.vigdor@scni.com or at 203-625-4436.